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In the Blood: A Novel
Author:
Unger, Lisa
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3621.N
Print Run: 125000
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ISBN-13: 9781451691177
LCCN: 2013014802
Imprint: Touchstone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Pub Date: 01/07/2014
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $25.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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342 pages ; 24 cm
H 9",
W 6",
D 1.1",
1.12 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Blockbuster List
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Publishers Weekly
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TIPS Subjects:
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Psychological Fiction
Suspense/Thriller
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Thrillers / General
FICTION / Psychological
FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
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LC Subjects:
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Missing persons, Fiction
Psychological fiction
Suspense fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Psychological fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 08/01/2013 |
| Lifelong liar and soon-to-be college graduate Lana Granger never thought she'd meet her manipulative match in young Luke, the disturbed boy she's babysitting to make ends meet now that her trust fund is all but gone. When Lana's best friend vanishes, Lana falls back on old habits to hide the truth. She's about to find out that someone else knows the secrets she's fought so hard to keep, and he won't rest until everyone bears witness to the truth. 352pp., 125K, Auth res: FL |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Publishers Weekly | 10/28/2013 |
| Bestseller Unger returns to the Hollows, the secluded upstate New York town that served as the setting for Fragile and Darkness, My Old Friend, for this gripping novel of psychological suspense. Ace student Lana Granger, with a new name and appearance, sequesters herself at small Sacred Heart College, where no one knows that her father is on death row for killing her mother. At the urging of a compassionate psychology professor, Lana takes a job with Rachel Kahn babysitting her volatile 11-year-old son, Luke. Mother and son have recently moved to the Hollows, where Luke is enrolled at a school for troubled kids. While Lana is drawn into a bizarre game manipulated by Luke, who has discovered her secrets and threatens to expose her, her best friend, Beck Miller, disappears after the two of them argue. A mystery woman's revealing diary augments the tense, surprise-laden plot. Agent: Elaine Markson, Markson Thoma Literary Agency. (Jan.). 352p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 01/08/2014 |
| Have you ever told a particular lie for so long that now it seems like the truth to you? It's become so much a part of you that it's no longer a betrayal to tell it? In In the Blood, author Lisa Unger has concocted a clever tissue of lies that is the new normal for Lana Granger. The author allows readers brief glimpses that all may not be what it seems. Readers know Lana has a troubled past. Her father is in prison, convicted of killing her mother. Lana's mind claims certain facts about the event and discards others, creating a fragile tapestry of her life experiences. How long will it hold together? Now in her senior year of college, she has taken a part-time job looking after Luke, an 11-year-old who attends the school for troubled kids where Lana interns under the guidance of psych professor and school counselor Langdon Hewes. Luke's not only eerie and subject to anger; he's also quick and devious. The two play chess, and Lana knows that he's "confident, crafty, always five moves ahead." But Luke may have other, more dangerous games in mind for Lana. Readers may imagine virtual warnings posted on nearly every page: Turn back now! Go no further! Lana's careful mental and emotional house of cards is tested when her best friend, Beck, disappears. The police investigate what appears to be a sexual subtext to their relationship. Unger sets up an intricate masquerade--a push-pull of fact and prevarication in the tense interplay between Lana, Langdon and disarming young Luke. The story includes entries from an enigmatic, anonymous diary to further ensnare readers who seek the connection between Lana's past and present. This fast-moving book is a rollercoaster thrill ride, withholding crucial facts and then pounding you with them as the chapters wind down. It's a quick, adrenaline-filled read with a slam-bang climax. Unger's skill with words, combined with a pace that never lets up, is guaranteed to keep the pages turning long past the midnight hour. BookPage Children’s Corner Web Exclusive Review. BOOKPAGE, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 04/15/2013 |
| The Hollows is once again a poor choice for someone trying to keep a secret in this latest thriller from best-selling author Unger (Heartbroken, 2012, etc.). This time, it's Sacred Heart College in the upstate New York town that attracts an unhappy outsider seeking refuge. Lana Granger remains haunted by her mother's murder; her father, still on death row for the crime, keeps trying to make contact with her. You might wonder, given Lana's memories of her "appalling" childhood behavior and its role in the violent dysfunction of her parents' marriage, why she would take a job baby sitting for 11-year-old Luke, who attends a nearby school for disturbed kids and is exactly the sort of manipulative, "callous-unemotional" deemed most likely to become a full-blown psychopath by experts like Lana's psychology professor, Langdon Hewes. But Lana feels a strange bond with Luke, and Unger skillfully ratchets up the tension as we begin to realize the boy knows far more about Lana's past than he should, while diary entries interspersed with the main narrative document horrifying behavior by a malicious child we assume is Luke. It soon becomes clear that neither Lana nor the diary entries are what they seem, and it seems frighteningly likely that our troubled protagonist had something to do with her best friend Beck's disappearance. But Unger pulls off a bravura feat of misdirection with Lana's guilty secret and a terrific aha! moment with the revelation of the first of several villains, each fingered with clues carefully planted throughout the text. The book's emotional logic isn't as impeccable as its plotting: We're asked to believe that one dangerously unstable child can grow up and learn to love with the help of therapy and lots of meds, while another with virtually identical issues will always be a monster. Few readers will dwell on this inconsistency as they savor the pleasure of being guided by Unger's sure hand along a deliciously twisted narrative path. Another scary winner from an accomplished pro. 352pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Library Journal | 11/01/2013 |
| Lana is a deeply disturbed young woman who has found the perfect place to hide: as a student at a small college in a remote New York town. Struggling with a troubled past that includes her mother having been murdered, Lana wants a place where she feels safe and removed. A part-time job as a nanny seems to be the perfect way to earn extra income, but her 11-year-old charge proves to be more difficult than she expected. Bright and manipulative, the boy seems to sense that his new babysitter has a number of secrets of her own. When a friend of Lana's goes missing shortly after they argued in front of a number of witnesses, it seems that her dream of peace is shattered. VERDICT Unger's (Beautiful Lies) latest offering is full of engaging twists and turns. She tells the story from Lana's point of view but skillfully keeps the reader guessing as to what dark secrets the character is hiding. Fans of mystery and psychological suspense, along with Unger's fans, will be delighted with this imaginative story. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/13; library marketing.]. Linda Oliver, MLIS, Colorado Springs. 352p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 07/15/2013 |
| Having built her life on lies, college senior Lana is primed to match wits with the little monster she's now babysitting, even if he has been expelled from schools nationwide. But when she conceals her whereabouts on the night her best friend disappears, the secret she's been hiding looks ready to surface. Unger, who has 1.5 million copies of her books out there, returns to creepy psychological suspense in which she excels. 352p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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